300 Avalanche Avenue, Mountain Pass, GA 30003

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August 2012

I am really enjoying your children. This is a very pleasant class! I am so grateful!

A few notes:

1) One of our centers is going to be a listening station. To prevent any spreading of lice, should any show up, would you please send in little headphones (earbuds?) like you get on an airplane for your child? We have 2 headphones for the class to share.

2) Tonight I sent home a math blaster sheet. Please time your child for 7 minutes, and then count how many he or she got correct and we will graph our progress. These will come home twice a week. Thanks. Please send the sheet back. Please encourage your child to practice his or her addition facts by using the math links listed under 2nd grade math on the weblink notebook.

3) Please encourage your child to bring his or her folder daily. It is where I send homework and an important vehicle of communication.

4) We had our first day of exchanging our children for math. Some children went to Mrs. Dess, some to Mrs. Latimer and some stayed right here. The current math unit is place value. We will not be ready to switch out for reading until we have taught all of the centers.

5) Your children are proving to be diligent writers! They write for the entire designated time, and elements of writing that I haven't even taught are starting to show up. We've had stories with a beginning, middle and ending, surprise twists, expression of feelings, lots of creativity, and more!

6)The first spelling units are designed to help your children learn to discriminate between long and short vowel sounds. Last week we worked on long and short A, and this week we are learning to discriminate between long and short I. We are working on long vowels that have a magic E at the end or are part of a vowel team such as "ai." Please test your child on the words on Thursday night, so you will know which ones to work on.

7) If your computer is not working, or Spelling City is not effective for your child, here are some alternative ideas. You can write out your child's spelling words in very large print. Your child can trace the letters with his or her forefinger while saying the letters to spell the word. You can also have your child trace the word in three different colors. Be sure he or she completes the word in one color before shifting to the next color.

8)If your child has mastered the words, he or she may choose to write sentences with the words or write a story using the words. Please be sure to send in these alternate assignments to Spelling City.

We have been asked by our attendance clerk to pass on this information about attendance notes. Attendance notes are extremely important for us to receive and track. According to the new attendance policy, we are not supposed to accept them after 3 days, with the exception of doctor's notes. Please be sure to send in a note when your child is absent as well as your doctor's notes when applicable to explain your student's absence.

Thank you for helping to get our year off to a good start! Thanks for attending the Open House. If you were unable to come, I sent papers home for you in your child's blue folder. If you could complete those on the "Return to school" side, that would be great. I included papers from Karin Galvin, our room mother, as well. The papers we would love to see back are the yellow emergency dismissal card, the blue class directory sheet, the class Tshirt sheet (please indicate if you would like one or not) and the child information sheet. In the right pocket was a letter from Karin, our room mom, with information on how to sign up to be a classroom volunteer. If that is confusing to you, please let us know and we will keep you posted.

Thank you for remembering to write me notes and tucking them into the blue folder for dismissal changes. I really appreciate that.

Also, please remember the best and most reliable way to contact me is through the blue folder or through email.

Please sign the green behavior sheet after you have reviewed it with your child. Please be sure to leave that green behavior sheet in the folder al all times. Thanks.

The class seems to be very sweet and kind to each other. It doesn't get better than that!

This week we will start homework. Although Mrs. Dess, Mrs. Latimer and I will not start our teaming on Language Arts for another 2-3 weeks, we will be sharing one set of spelling words, and those words will be posted on spelling city under Mrs. Dess. Directions on how to access our spelling word list on Spelling City will come home in the blue folder today.